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Pump repair plan tripled at Water Treatment Plant

Clear Lake City Council members anticipated replacing one pump at its Water Treatment Plant, but now are forced to purchase three pumps at a cost of nearly $480,000.

Monday night Council members approved a professional services agreement with Veenstra & Kimm to proceed with the necessary improvements to the plant.

City Administrator Scott Flory explained that in June the Council authorized an engineering services agreement with Veenstra & Kimm to assess the existing condition of the Water Treatment Plant’s high service pumps and make recommendations regarding potential needs. The request was made in response to some prior operational issues with one of the pumps.

V&K concluded that all three of the high service pumps critical to the operation of the Water Treatment Plant are in fair or poor condition. Re-use of the existing pumps is not recommended due to size/capacity and age.

A fourth pump at the plant has not been operational for many years and is not critical to the system’s operations. The fourth pump was necessary when the city would pull water from the lake for its supply. That has not been done for decades.

The three pumps which will be replaced were installed in 1972, 1989, and 1948, respectively. Each pump has been re-conditioned; the most recent work took place more than 23 years ago.

Generally, the high service pumps have a life expectancy of 20-25 years, officials noted.

In addition to replacing three pumps, V&K also recommends the City consider replacement of the facility’s back-up generator, which is now 22-years-old and capable of manual operation only. The back-up generator is also not capable of handling the majority of the Water Treatment Plant load.

City officials indicated they are uncertain if replacement of the generator will take place at the same time as the new pumps are installed, or whether it will come later.